Reid Seen Moving on Nominee-Rule Change as Soon as Today

By Kathleen Hunter and James Rowley -
Nov 21, 2013

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
may move ahead with changing rules on nominations as soon as
today in response to Republicans’ blocking three of President
Barack Obama’s choices for a federal appeals court.

Reid could bring up the vote on altering procedural rules
for the president’s nominations when the chamber meets today,
according to a senior Democratic aide who wasn’t authorized to
speak publicly about the timing.

Democratic support for procedural changes has gained
momentum this week after a third consecutive Obama nominee for
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance. Democrats control
55 of the chamber’s 100 seats.

“We need to do something to allow government to
function,” Reid told reporters Nov. 19 after a closed-door
meeting of Senate Democrats. “It is incredible.”

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has vowed in the past to revise
rules so that a simple majority of 51 senators would be enough
to proceed, a change known as the nuclear option. He has offered
no specifics while saying that any revision would be limited to
executive branch and lower-court nominations and wouldn’t apply
to Supreme Court nominees or legislation.

Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, yesterday made the case
on the Senate floor for employing the “nuclear option” to
change the rules through a simple majority vote to limit
opponents’ power to block nominees.

“It is time to end the block-and-destroy strategy being
employed by the minority,” said Merkley.

‘Raw’ Power

Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, pressed
lawmakers yesterday to oppose any rules change, which he called
a “raw exercise of political power,” Bloomberg BNA reported.

A revision would transform the Senate “into an institution
where the home team can cheat to win the game,” Alexander said
on the Senate floor.

John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, said
“back-channel discussions” were held yesterday aimed at
averting a showdown over the rules. He said he isn’t a party to
the talks and didn’t offer any details.

It takes 60 votes to end the minority-party delaying tactic
known as a filibuster, and a change in the rules for ending
filibusters wouldn’t be a first. In 1975, senators reduced the
number of votes needed to end the obstruction tactic from 67 to
the current 60.

A three-month truce between the parties on nominations
unraveled amid opposition by Republicans to Obama’s picks for
the D.C. Circuit -- often regarded as the nation’s second-highest after the Supreme Court.

Court Nominees

On Oct. 31, Republicans blocked confirmation of Washington
lawyer Patricia Millett for a vacancy on the court. On Nov. 12,
they blocked Georgetown University law professor Nina Pillard’s
nomination to another vacancy on the same court. And on Nov. 18,
the nomination of U.S. District Judge Robert L. Wilkins fell
short of the required 60-vote margin.

Reid also criticized Republicans for moving Oct. 31 to
block North Carolina Representative Mel Watt’s nomination to
lead the agency that oversees government-chartered mortgage
finance companies Freddie Mac (FMCC) and Fannie Mae, saying they did so
because they oppose the law Congress enacted to regulate
financial institutions following the 2008 financial crisis.

Republicans have accused Obama of trying to fill the court
-- which often rules on challenges to government regulations --
with nominees sympathetic to his agenda. Democrats say that
Republicans are trying to deny Obama the confirmation votes they
routinely gave to President George W. Bush.

‘Concoct’ Crisis

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky
Republican, said in a Nov. 18 floor speech that Democrats were
trying to “concoct a crisis” over the D.C. Circuit to
“distract Americans from the failings of Obamacare.”
Republicans say that the 11-member court’s caseload is
insufficient to justify filling three vacancies.

During almost five years in office, Obama has placed only a
single judge, Sri Srinivasan, on the D.C. Circuit. Srinivasan
was confirmed in May after Obama’s first nominee, Caitlin Halligan, was blocked by Senate Republicans. They objected to
Halligan’s work as New York state’s solicitor general on a
lawsuit against handgun manufacturers.

Reid said Nov. 19 that he wouldn’t accept anything short of
having all of the latest D.C. Circuit nominees approved.

“I insist on getting all three,” he said. “Any
president, not just President Obama, Democrat or Republican,
needs to be able to have the team that he wants in place.”